AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match

2008 AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match
2008 AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match
21.11 (137)	18.12 (120)
Date	10 May 2008
Stadium	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Attendance	69,294
Umpires	Vozzo, Kennedy, Rosebury, McInerney
Coin toss won by	Victoria
Kicked toward	Punt Road End
Broadcast in Australia
Network	Network Ten
Commentators	Stephen Quartermain and Anthony Hudson

Last updated March 17, 2023

The AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match was a one-off all-star game between two representative sides organised by the Australian Football League to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Australian rules football. The match was intended to celebrate the contribution of State of Origin and interstate matches to the history of the code.

Background

In 2007, the AFL announced that it would support a return of the State of Origin concept as a once-off carnival as part of the 150th anniversary of Australian rules football scheduled for 2008. The format of the carnival was not announced at this early stage.

The media featured several opinions on how the series could work without unduly interrupting the AFL season. There were suggestions that each state be individually represented, with a two division format to ensure that there would be no one-sided matches between the stronger states and the weaker states, and there were also suggestions for Victoria to be divided into separate Metro and Country, both of which are features of the annual AFL Under-18 Championships.^[1]

Many of the options that the AFL considered featured composite teams of weaker states, similar to the Allies team which represented Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory collectively during State of Origin series in the 1990s.^[2]

By December, the vision for a full carnival had been reduced to a single all-star match, to be played between Victoria and the Dream Team, a composite team of all other states, territories and countries, on a State of Origin selection basis. The match would be held as a stand-alone match on the weekend between Rounds 7 and 8, on Saturday 10 May.

South Australia's Graham Cornes was critical of the format, saying that it deprived non-Victorian players of the honour of wearing a state guernsey. He felt that each state should have been given the opportunity to field their own team.^[3]

Amid concerns over player participation, the AFL considered introducing penalties for selected players who refused to participate. Instead, players were paid A$5,000 each to compete in the match, and the players agreed to donate the money to the AFL Players Association to be to distributed to three charities, a special past players fund, the Ladder program to combat homelessness and RecLink, which funds football leagues in remote communities in the Northern Territory.^[4]

In early 2008 the AFL announced the full details of the match and branded it as the "AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match", deliberately distancing it from the former State of Origin series. It promoted the event by announcing two captains would be Jonathon Brown (Victoria) and Andrew McLeod (Dream Team).

Victoria wore its traditional navy blue guernsey with a white V. The Dream Team wore a predominantly white guernsey, with beige cuffs and collars, and blue numbers and side panels; the names of 1246 community and grass-roots football clubs competing within the Australian states and territories eligible for the Dream Team were also included in small beige text across the front.^[5]

Squads

In April 2008 the AFL announced 40-man squads for both teams, which would later be trimmed to 25 per side. All AFL teams except Essendon and Melbourne had at least one player selected in one of the sides. The match was played with an extended interchange bench of seven players instead of four.

Several high-profile players pulled out of the match in the final weeks before the game. Gary Ablett Jr, Nick Dal Santo and Brad Johnson pulled out for Victoria, while Luke McPharlin and Irishman Tadhg Kennelly dropped out for the Dream Team.^[6]

Final teams

2008 Victorian Tribute Match side
B:	Campbell Brown (Hawthorn)	Matthew Scarlett (Geelong)	Darren Milburn (Geelong)
HB:	Heath Shaw (Collingwood)	Trent Croad (Hawthorn)	Jarrad Waite (Carlton)
C:	Brent Harvey (North Melbourne)	Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn)	Adam Goodes (Sydney)
HF:	Ryan O'Keefe (Sydney)	Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions)	Robert Murphy (Western Bulldogs)
F:	Steve Johnson (Geelong)	Brendan Fevola (Carlton)	Daniel Bradshaw (Brisbane Lions)
Foll:	Troy Simmonds (Richmond)	Jimmy Bartel (Geelong)	Chris Judd (Carlton)
Int:	Josh Fraser (Collingwood)	Luke Power (Brisbane Lions)	Paul Chapman (Geelong)
	James Kelly (Geelong)	Nathan Foley (Richmond)	Scott Pendlebury (Collingwood) Joel Selwood (Geelong)
Coach:	Mark Thompson (Geelong)

2008 Dream Team Tribute Match side
B:	Graham Johncock (Adelaide)	Ben Rutten (Adelaide)	Craig Bolton (Sydney)
HB:	Andrew McLeod (Adelaide)	Matthew Pavlich (Fremantle)	Adam Cooney (Western Bulldogs)
C:	Matthew Richardson (Richmond)	Daniel Kerr (West Coast)	Shaun Burgoyne (Port Adelaide)
HF:	Simon Goodwin (Adelaide)	Cameron Mooney (Geelong)	Daniel Motlop (Port Adelaide)
F:	Brett Burton (Adelaide)	Lance Franklin (Hawthorn)	Leon Davis (Collingwood)
Foll:	Dean Cox (West Coast)	Peter Burgoyne (Port Adelaide)	Kane Cornes (Port Adelaide)
Int:	Nathan Bock (Adelaide)	Jamie Charman (Brisbane Lions)	Joel Corey (Geelong)
	Mathew Stokes (Geelong)	Brett Kirk (Sydney)	Corey Enright (Geelong) Ryan Griffen (Western Bulldogs)
Coach:	Mark Williams (Port Adelaide)

List

Victoria	137–120	Dream Team
(21.11)		(18.12)

Position	Player	Pos'ns^[7]	Goals
Forward	Steve Johnson	14	3.0
Forward	Brendan Fevola	10	6.2
Forward	Daniel Bradshaw	8	1.2
Half-Forward	Ryan O'Keefe	8	1.0
Half-Forward	Jonathan Brown	11	3.2
Half-Forward	Robert Murphy	14	1.1
Centre	Brent Harvey	23	3.0
Centre	Sam Mitchell	21	0.0
Centre	Adam Goodes	21	0.0
Half-Back	Heath Shaw	21	0.0
Half-Back	Trent Croad	8	0.0
Half-Back	Jarrad Waite	11	0.1
Back	Campbell Brown	12	1.0
Back	Matthew Scarlett	15	0.0
Back	Darren Milburn	16	0.0
Follower	Troy Simmonds	10	0.0
Follower	Jimmy Bartel	19	0.0
Follower	Chris Judd	20	0.0
Interchange:
Interchange	Josh Fraser	12	0.0
Interchange	Luke Power	20	0.0
Interchange	Paul Chapman	15	1.2
Interchange	James Kelly	15	0.0
Interchange	Nathan Foley	21	1.0
Interchange	Scott Pendlebury	19	0.0
Interchange	Joel Selwood	14	0.0
Coach:
Mark Thompson (Geelong)

Position	Player	Pos'ns^[7]	Goals
Forward	Brett Burton	14	2.1
Forward	Lance Franklin	14	4.5
Forward	Leon Davis	16	3.1
Half-Forward	Simon Goodwin	14	2.0
Half-Forward	Cameron Mooney	3	1.0
Half-Forward	Daniel Motlop	9	2.0
Centre	Matthew Richardson	13	1.1
Centre	Daniel Kerr	6	0.0
Centre	Shaun Burgoyne	21	1.0
Half-Back	Andrew McLeod	29	0.0
Half-Back	Matthew Pavlich	11	0.2
Half-Back	Adam Cooney	11	0.0
Back	Graham Johncock	25	0.0
Back	Ben Rutten	10	0.0
Back	Craig Bolton	6	0.0
Follower	Dean Cox	13	0.0
Follower	Peter Burgoyne	36	0.0
Follower	Kane Cornes	26	0.0
Interchange:
Interchange	Nathan Bock	11	0.0
Interchange	Jamie Charman	8	0.0
Interchange	Joel Corey	23	0.0
Interchange	Mathew Stokes	21	1.1
Interchange	Brett Kirk	12	1.0
Interchange	Corey Enright	12	0.0
Interchange	Ryan Griffen	12	0.0
Coach:
Mark Williams (Port Adelaide)

Allen Aylett Medal

The Allen Aylett Medal for best on ground was awarded to Brendan Fevola, who kicked six goals for Victoria.^[8]

Scorecard


	AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match
Saturday, 10 May 2008 7:40 pm	Victoria	def.	Dream Team	MCG (crowd: 69,294)
	3.6 (24) 9.8 (62) 14.9 (93) 21.11 (137)	Q1 Q2 Q3 Final	5.4 (34) 8.6 (54) 15.8 (98) 18.12 (120)	Umpires: Vozzo, Kennedy, Rosebury, McInerney Allen Aylett Medal: Brendan Fevola (Victoria)


Fevola 6 J Brown, Johnson, Harvey 3 O'Keefe, Murphy, C Brown, Chapman, Bradshaw, Foley 1		Goals	Franklin 4 Davis 3 Motlop, Burton, Goodwin 2 Richardson, Kirk, S Burgoyne, Mooney, Stokes 1
Fevola, Foley, Pendlebury, Goodes, Harvey		Best	P Burgoyne, McLeod, S Burgoyne, Johncock
Fraser (knee)		Injuries	Kerr (lower leg)

Related Research Articles

Robert Jeffrey Harvey is an Australian rules football coach and former player. He is currently an assistant coach for the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League. As a player he played his entire career with the St Kilda Football Club in the Australian Football League. He was previously the interim head coach of the Collingwood Football Club.

A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval in Perth, the initial brainchild of Leon Larkin. The selection criteria for Australian football have varied, but they are generally applied to players who have played most of their juniors games in a particular state or territory, hence the name "State of Origin". In Rugby League the criteria are different, where players are selected for where they either first played senior Rugby League or where they played in the majority of senior competitions. The annual Rugby League State of Origin series is one of Australia's most popular sporting events. The name is also used in Australia for small sporting events which generally involve domestic representative teams.

The Showdown is an Australian rules football game played by the two Australian Football League (AFL) teams from South Australia, the Adelaide and Port Adelaide football clubs. The first AFL premiership fixture between the two clubs took place on 20 April 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Representative matches in Australian rules football</span>

Representative matches in Australian rules football are matches between representative teams played under the Australian rules, most notably of the colonies and later Australian states and territories that have been held since 1879. For most of the 20th century, the absence of a national club competition in Australia and international matches meant that intercolonial and later interstate matches were regarded with great importance.

Jason Hadfield Dunstall is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

The E. J. Whitten Legends Game was an annual charity all-star Australian rules football match played in Australia. Retired star players were reunited, along with selected non-footballing celebrities, in a State of Origin interstate game between Victoria and a composite side known as the All-Stars. The game was contested annually from 1996 to 2019 and played under Superules.

Brent Harvey, often known by his nickname "Boomer", is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He holds the record for most matches played by an individual in VFL/AFL history, breaking Michael Tuck's previous VFL/AFL record in 2016 with a total of 432 games played.

The Talent League is an under-19 Australian rules football representative competition held in Australia. It is based on geographic regions throughout country Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne with each team representing one of twelve Victorian regions, while a thirteenth team from Tasmania was reintroduced in 2019.

Daniel Patrick Frawley was an Australian rules football player, coach, administrator, commentator and media personality. He played 240 games for the St Kilda Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL)/Australian Football League (AFL) from 1984 to 1995, captaining the club for nine seasons, and won All-Australian selection and the St Kilda best and fairest award in 1988. Frawley coached the Richmond Football Club from 2000 to 2004, with his most successful season coming in 2001, when he coached Richmond to a preliminary final. He later served as chief executive officer of the AFL Coaches Association from 2008 to 2014, and had part-time roles with the Hawthorn Football Club and St Kilda.

The Australian Football League (AFL) is a company operating the premier and only fully professional competition of Australian rules football and the AFL Women's and other competitions. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition from the Victorian Football Association (VFA), with its inaugural season in 1897. It changed its name to Australian Football League in 1990 after expanding its competition to other Australian states in the 1980s. The AFL publishes its Laws of Australian football, which are used, with variations, by other Australian football organisations.

Australian rules football in Tasmania, has been played since the late 1870s and draws the largest audience for a football code in the state.

Australian rules football in the Australian Capital Territory has been played continuously since 1911 and was the most popular football code in the nation's capital Canberra between 1978 and 1982. The current governing body is AFL NSW/ACT established in 1999.

The 1958 VFL season was the 62nd season of the Victorian Football League (VFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Victoria. The season featured twelve clubs, ran from 12 April until 20 September, and comprised an 18-game home-and-away season followed by a finals series featuring the top four clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Rioli</span> Australian rules footballer and politician

Maurice Joseph Rioli Sr. was an Australian rules footballer who represented St Mary's Football Club in the Northern Territory Football League (NTFL), South Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and Richmond in the Victorian Football League.

Barry Thomas Cable MBE is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. Considered one of the greatest rovers in the sport's history, he played in 379 premiership games in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the Victorian Football League (VFL), and later coached in both competitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Australian rules football team</span> Australian rules football representative team

The Victoria Australian rules football team, known colloquially as the Big V, is the state representative side of Victoria, Australia, in the sport of Australian rules football.

The AFL Under-19 Championships is an annual Australian national underage representative championship in Australian rules football tournament. It is seen as one of the main pathways towards being drafted into a team in the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL).

The Allies is a composite team competing in interstate representative Australian rules football matches that comprises players from Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland and Tasmania.

Darcy Moore is an Australian rules footballer who currently plays for the Collingwood Football Club. The son of former Collingwood captain Peter Moore, he played for the Oakleigh Chargers in the TAC Cup before he was drafted to Collingwood in 2014 under the father–son rule. Moore has served as Collingwood captain since 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match</span>

The State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match was a one-off all-star game between two representative sides organised by the Australian Football League to raise funds for recovery efforts following the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season.

References

↑ Walsh, Courtney (31 May 2007). "Divide Victoria in State of Origin, says Connolly". The Australian. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
↑ "Tasmania's Origin plea". Fox Sports. Fox Sports Australia. 30 May 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
↑ Timms, Daryl (26 November 2007). "Cornes blasts all-star match". Fox Sports. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
↑ Cullen, Mic (6 May 2008). "Tribute match fees handballed to needy". afl.com.au. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
↑ "Dream Team jumper design revealed". Australian Football League. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2008.
↑ "Official Website of the Australian Football League > News Article > Tribute Match teams". Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 31 July 2008.
1 2 Pos'ns stands for Possessions.
↑ "AFL | Team & Player News, Live Coverage, Results, Fixtures, Tips & Analysis".

External links

Official 150 years website

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Walsh, Courtney (31 May 2007). "Divide Victoria in State of Origin, says Connolly". The Australian. Retrieved 8 February 2022.

[2] "Tasmania's Origin plea". Fox Sports. Fox Sports Australia. 30 May 2007. Retrieved 8 February 2022.

[3] Timms, Daryl (26 November 2007). "Cornes blasts all-star match". Fox Sports. Retrieved 8 February 2022.

[4] Cullen, Mic (6 May 2008). "Tribute match fees handballed to needy". afl.com.au. Retrieved 8 February 2022.

[AFLComAu_150Years_DreamTeam_Gurnsey-5] "Dream Team jumper design revealed". Australian Football League. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2008.

[6] "Official Website of the Australian Football League > News Article > Tribute Match teams". Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 31 July 2008.

[Pos-7] 1 2 Pos'ns stands for Possessions.

[8] "AFL | Team & Player News, Live Coverage, Results, Fixtures, Tips & Analysis".

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

v t e 2008 AFL season
Events	NAB Cup Premiership season AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match Finals series Grand Final International Rules Series
Awards	AFL Players Association awards All-Australian team Army Award Brownlow Medal Coleman Medal Goal of the Year Leigh Matthews Trophy Mark of the Year Michael Tuck Medal Norm Smith Medal Rising Star
Club overviews	Adelaide Brisbane Lions Carlton Collingwood Essendon Fremantle Geelong Hawthorn Melbourne North Melbourne Port Adelaide Richmond St Kilda Sydney West Coast Western Bulldogs
Player changes	Debuts Retirements and delistings Trades

v t e Interstate matches in Australian rules football
Section A Championships	1908 Melbourne Carnival 1911 Adelaide Carnival 1914 Sydney Carnival 1921 Perth Carnival 1924 Hobart Carnival 1927 Melbourne Carnival 1930 Adelaide Carnival 1933 Sydney Carnival 1937 Perth Carnival 1947 Hobart Carnival 1950 Brisbane Carnival 1953 Adelaide Carnival 1956 Perth Carnival 1958 Melbourne Carnival 1961 Brisbane Carnival 1966 Hobart Carnival 1969 Adelaide Carnival 1972 Perth Carnival 1975 Knockout Carnival 1979 Perth Carnival 1980 Adelaide Carnival 1983 Championships 1984 Championships 1985 Championships 1986 Championships 1987 Championships 1988 Adelaide Carnival 1993 Championships
Section B Championships	1908 Melbourne Carnival 1947 Hobart Carnival 1950 Brisbane Carnival 1951 Canberra Minor States Carnival 1954 North Hobart Minor States Carnival 1958 Melbourne Carnival 1960 Sydney Minor States Carnival 1965 Division 2 Championships 1968 Canberra Minor States Carnival 1971 Brisbane Minor States Carnival 1974 Sydney Minor States Carnival 1979 Perth Carnival 1988 Adelaide Carnival 1993 Championships
Other Events	Other State of Origin matches 2008 AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match 2020 State of Origin for Bushfire Relief Match
Women's	AFL Women's National Championship 2017 State of Origin
Underage	AFL Under 18 Championships/Teal Cup AFL Women's Under 18 Championships
Awards	National: Tassie Medal Allies: Alex Jesaulenko Medal Queensland: Zane Taylor Medal South Australia: Fos Williams Medal Tasmania: Lefroy Medal Victoria: E. J. Whitten Medal Frank Johnson Medal Allen Aylett Medal Western Australia: Simpson Medal Graham Moss Medal U/18: Larke Medal (Division 1) Hunter Harrison Medal (Division 2)